FlipBoard

Welcome to our new Magazine format!
All new content will now be brought to you in this easy, new format. All our older content can still be found by scrolling below.
Simply click the ">" to start the magazine and navigate via your arrow keys.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

I got a couple of comments from this post which I thought I would address here. Seems some people think it is a crazy idea to stockpile firearms for future use--such as bartering and selling--which on the one hand does sound kind of crazy (why arm people who could use the arms against you?) but on the other hand makes complete sense. Here's why:

Firearms are easier to value and sell as compared to, say gold. I have yet to ever sell gold to a random person but have bought, sold, and traded firearms with people many times in the past.

I can shoot exactly two firearms at a time. So even if I stockpile a couple hundred firearms, I will only be able to shoot two at a time. With the spouse, that would make four. The other 180 firearms will be just sitting there doing nothing. Might as well make them usable...by holding them as hard assets that could be used to provide for the things I need via bartering or selling.

The possibility of total societal collapse where I would use my firearms as barterable/saleable items is about 2%. The possibility of personal collapse (extended illness, extended job loss, divorce that leaves me with nothing, etc) where I would use my firearms as barterable/saleable items is about 98%. It is the 98% that I mostly prepare for.

Should the 2% happen and societal collapse is upon us, I would still be able to decide who to sell/barter my firearms too. It's at that point that I would hope to be living in a community/with people as a "tribe" so to speak who would (most likely) be people who I could trade/barter my firearms with and who would be unlikely to use them against me.

Of course there is always a downside to stockpiling firearms, namely the need to maintain them, secure them, etc. but in the grand scheme of things, I would much rather put my money into usable assets such as firearms, food, tools, etc. than into, say, a pile of US bonds which may eventually be worth less than the paper they are printed on.